For the Mission
by BadWolfKaily
Summary: Shaw had to do it for the mission. Even if it meant torturing Root. Root had to do it for Shaw. Even if it meant betraying her God.


Root could say she was having a rough day but that would be an understatement. She wasn't aware of the emotional toll that was being taken on her but when all this was over it'd be awhile before she wouldn't flinch away from Shaw's touch. The same touch that was currently wrapped around Root's neck, squeezing. Maybe at one point they would've worked this into something kinky but not like this. She knew Shaw was stronger than this, she just needed to get through to her somehow.

"I know you're in there somewhere, Shaw. I'm going to save you," Root strained against her restraints.

Shaw laughed, "Really? I think you're the one that needs some saving."

Root laughed back, "All part of the plan, sweetie."

Shaw growled and smacked her across the face adding a split lip to the many other bruises and cuts inflicted on Root that hour. She grasped a hand around Root's pale throat, "Even if you go against your God, you're still going to try and save me?"

Root could barely nod a yes but nonetheless it startled Shaw. The unyielding belief in Roots eyes made Shaw's stomach churn. And then Root began to cry, Shaw's grip loosening only for a minute before she squeezed it harder, "Let's see how many tears I can squeeze out of you then."

The last Root remembers is a commotion of shooting in the background before all goes black. Root dreams in black and white the only color being red that lace's her hands. Her hands are so stained with blood she doesn't even know if her soul can be saved or if she even has a soul to save. S.O.S.

She finds her boot sticking to the floor, more red. Blood pools at her feet. A small body the reason for the blood lays limp and fragile in the middle of the room. A gun she hadn't noticed before is in her hand and she stares at the body then to the gun in her hand and connects two and two together. Panic rips at her and she trips backwards into that elevator that haunts her nightmares, the gate sliding shut. She laces her fingers through the fence, eyes wide with fear, "Sameen!?"

The body just lays there and Root knows there's not much she can do but she screams Shaw's name like a prayer to the powers that be to save that woman lying on the floor. The love of her life. And she just shakes the gate crying, yelling, and now the pale bloody body of Shaw is staring back at her, "You killed me, Root."

Gasping for air Root shoots awake, a scream of Sameen leaving her lips. She's met by a calm darkness, her hand flying to her throat. The soreness tells her that Shaw choking her wasn't a dream. Root is swimming in terror, shaking. She hasn't felt so out of control of her body and emotions since she was a little girl. A hand gently touches her shoulder followed by a raspy, "Root."

Startling the hacker backwards hands frantically trying to push the person her mind hasn't registered as Shaw, away.

"God, damnit, Root! I'm not going to hurt you. You're safe now!" Shaw flips the light on illuminating the room of a shotty motel.

Eye's still adjusting, wet with tears, Root looks around frantically taking in her location. Finally setting her eyes on Shaw, she stiffens. The Persian cautiously walks towards Root, her hands up in a I'm-not-going-hurt-you stance.

"Sameen? You're….you? You're here…." Root eye's her suspiciously.

"Yeah, it's me, I'm sorry about back there. I had to do it, it was for the mission," Shaw sits on the opposite side of the bed facing away from Root's gaze.

A look of disgust passes across Root's face, "Mission?"

Fists clenching at the bed sheets Shaw sighs, "Yeah, the Machine and I, we sort of had a plan. But you had to go and get yourself captured didn't you? I had to keep up the act at least until John and the others showed up."

Root was too tired to be angry, "Ah, I see. That would explain why she...why you…."

Shaw peered back at her over he shoulder, "I'm sorry, Root. For what it's worth, doing what I did to you, it made me angry having to do that to you."

Reaching a hand out to touch Root's knee only made the hacker flinch and Shaw pulled her hand back as if she was burned by fire.

"Sorry, I didn't mean….I'm not really in complete control of myself right now."

"Earlier, you were having a nightmare. You mumbled an apology then too, for killing me," Root looked away ashamed as Shaw continued, "You didn't kill me Root, if anything you saved me. Everyday."

Root looked up, tears back in her eyes a broken, "Sameen," falling from her lips.

"It's true, it may have all been part of a mission but what they did to me in there. What I let them get away with, to make them believe they had won me over. I may not feel much, Root, but I feel you. And that kept me sane in there. It kept me on track."

Root just turned and faced the wall away from Shaw's sincere gaze, feeling the bed dip behind her she flinched at arms circling around her shoulders, Shaw's head next to hers. If this was the gentlest she'd seen Shaw it wasn't going to last long. She'd assumed that Shaw was doing this for her benefit because she knew that Shaw didn't do touchy feely. But she'd take the needed assurance of Shaw's living presence. A kiss pressed to the bruises on her neck left her trembling and Shaw maneuvered their bruised and exhausted bodies so she could hold the hacker against her.

Normally Root would crack some remark about Shaw needing to be the little spoon instead but the joke was quickly wiped from her mind the moment she felt the woman behind her fall into a much needed sleep. A sleep that she herself soon followed after. Dreaming in color.


End file.
